Network elements or nodes in data communications networks host a number of running timers for the control of automatic network engineering re-optimization, service resizing, statistics collection, reversion holdoff, and the like in various protocols and at various layers. These timers run independently per service and per node, and these timers are generally not connected, related, coordinated, or scheduled in any way with one another. The corresponding network event or action that occurs upon timer expiry may or may not be service impacting and often triggers protocol re-signaling, can incur performance cost, and/or invokes local software action. The actions are assumed to be statistically distributed across nodes and sparsely triggered. It is further assumed that each action imposes minimal traffic and performance impact to current deployments. Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication (ITU-T) standards do suggest that certain actions should be performed within network operator maintenance windows, but do not suggest a mechanism by which to assure that these actions occur within maintenance windows nor do they suggest how to prevent actions from occurring concurrently in bulk and with consideration for priority\sequence amongst protocols, protocol layers, and nodes within or without a maintenance window. As can be appreciated concurrence can have significant service impact.